The God of Controls' One-Coin Clear: Endless Express (7)
The roar of the dragon shook the air, sending tremors through everyone's skin.
The Guardians fell into panic.
“Contact them! Contact headquarters right now!”
“We can’t! The mana has frozen solid.”
The company commander rallied the Guardians.
“Even if we don’t contact them, they’re already on the way.”
“The intelligence division would have noticed even without our report. They’ll arrive soon.”
The battalion commander chewed his lip.
Soon? That was nothing more than empty reassurance.
For nearly twenty years, the intelligence division had tracked Untara’s movements with perfect accuracy—whether it stayed in its lair, moved east, or flew toward the train. Yet no report of Untara’s movement had come even after the vanguard defense battalion had departed. Something had gone wrong with the intelligence division.
‘Or perhaps this was the creature’s plan all along.’
The current mana freeze was a phenomenon they had never seen before. Untara had clearly used this technique to blind and deafen the intelligence division.
“Take your positions.”
The Guardians formed their ranks. The white wyverns and their subordinates that had been charging recklessly now circled the white dragon as if nothing had happened.
The battalion commander swallowed hard as Untara’s massive body drew closer in real time. The white dragon Untara was a monster beyond common sense. No one stationed on the train could defeat it. The only one who could even oppose it was the Legion Commander, Guhyul of the Dragon Slaying Sword. Even he could only drive Untara away.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, Untara’s chest began to swell.
“Breath! It’s a breath attack!”
“It’s a breath!”
“We have to stop it!”
“How?”
Hyeonhye clutched her head as she stared at the monitor.
Why is Untara here now? We haven’t even entered the ‘Dragon’s Nest’ yet.
Everyone fell into despair—except one person.
Stormbringer: Storm Summon
The Wind Spirit King Arasil descends upon player Yoon Taeyang’s body. (Duration: 60 seconds)
Whoosh.
Taeyang’s body became spirit-infused. At the same time, a violent storm began to rage.
“Are we just going to die like this?! We can’t die with our eyes open!”
The wind that had returned to the top of the train awakened the people. The first to react were the Guardian soldiers.
“That’s right! We have to try everything we can!”
“Damn it! The Legion Commander has always done this alone! If a whole battalion works together, we should at least manage one person’s share!”
The two company commanders, who had belatedly come to their senses, hurriedly began constructing magic formulas.
Guardian-style Mana Barrier – Basic.
Guardian-style Mana Barrier – Custom Observer.
The battalion commander raised a massive sword aura. The soldiers followed suit, either weaving the magic formulas they knew, preparing counterattacks or defenses with their equipment, or simply gathering mana into clumps in the air. Whether efficient or not, they were doing everything they could.
Ran shook her head.
“It’s no use. We can’t stop it. The scale is completely different.”
The amount of mana Untara was drawing in was absurd.
“Taeyang, let’s just get out of here. Taking that attack head-on is insane.”
“Where would we run? If this place gets destroyed, we can’t even clear the stage.”
“Ah.”
Ran let out a belated sigh. The place they stood was the lead car—directly above the engine room.
“We have to do everything we can. If we can’t stop this, we die too.”
Exactly. Being trapped in the stage was no different from death.
“I really hate situations like this.”
Ran bit her lip and opened her fan.
Whoosh.
The flow of mana being sucked into Untara’s mouth could be felt. The volume was so massive that the sensation was vivid even without focusing.
Taeyang counted every card he could play. He had already used Spirit Descent. Using the Greatest Machinery was out of the question—it didn’t seem like accelerating time would solve this. He briefly considered throwing his body at the breath attack, but quickly discarded that plan as well. It would be meaningless. At best, he could delay it by shooting mana clumps.
In the end, there was only one option left.
“Cannon Form. Never tried it while spirit-infused.”
Taeyang stepped into his stance. At that moment, Untara unleashed its breath.
Fwoooosh!
Hyeonhye squeezed her eyes shut, unable to watch the monitor.
“Breath incoming!”
“Maximum output on the magic circle! Anyone with mana left, support them!”
The cold air spewed from the white dragon’s mouth froze the atmosphere and rushed toward the front of the train.
“Aaaaargh!”
The battalion commander fired his sword aura. The aura seemed to briefly delay the breath before turning to ice and shattering. The defensive magic circles created by the two company commanders also shattered instantly. The Guardians’ desperate measures fared no better. In an instant, the fate of the train rested on Taeyang’s shoulders.
Taeyang furrowed his brow. The body infused with the Wind Spirit King Arasil made mana control far more difficult. In addition to Taeyang’s own mana, Arasil’s wind-attribute mana had attached itself. The Spirit King’s mana was violent and willful, befitting its “storm” descriptor.
His left foot planted firmly on the ground. He spun mana around his right foot.
Whooooosh.
Starlight dust spun wildly.
“Kgh.”
A groan escaped Taeyang’s lips. Far more mana than he had imagined coiled around his leg. The gathered mana began thrashing violently. Because of the spirit infusion, the amount of mana Taeyang could handle had exploded. The environment didn’t help either. Though the wind had briefly calmed with Untara’s appearance, the world of the Endless Express was always a place of freezing cold and howling winds. In other words, wind-attribute mana had always been abundant here. It was only natural that Taeyang felt overwhelmed when so much mana reacted to the Wind Spirit King and clung to him.
Mana called more mana, which called even more. Soon, Taeyang’s face turned deathly pale. Mana beyond what his body could withstand had gathered. But by the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late. The mana was now growing regardless of his will.
Crunch.
Taeyang bit his lip and forced his fading consciousness back into focus. An enormous density of mana coiled around his right leg and entire body, ready to burst out at the slightest opening.
“Kgh……”
His right foot, calf, and thigh—dense mana threatened to tear through his skin. But he had to endure. Otherwise, he would die.
Crack.
Untara’s breath was now moments from reaching the train. Then a deep male voice echoed in Taeyang’s mind.
You look like you’re struggling. I’ll help.
“What? Who?”
There was no answer. Yet the mana suddenly calmed. In that fleeting moment of regained control, Taeyang barely managed to kick toward the breath.
Starburst High Kick – Cannon Form.
At the same time, Ran swung her fan.
Mountain-Moving Art.
Thud.
With a circular wave, a silver-white beam pierced through the breath. The breath that had withstood even the battalion commander’s sword aura and the company commanders’ defensive magic circles lost its shape for the first time. The Guardians muttered in disbelief.
“Did we stop it?”
“Did we do it?”
“Really?”
“Not yet! We only scattered its form! There’s a second wave!”
Next, a storm powerful enough to move mountains swept over the breath. The shapeless breath scattered into the air.
In that brief moment, the chat window scrolled rapidly. The battalion commander and the other Guardians stared at Taeyang in shock. But Taeyang’s attention was elsewhere.
That voice… who was it?
Thud.
Taeyang dropped to his knees. It wasn’t voluntary. After unleashing such a massive technique, every drop of mana in his body had been drained, leaving him without strength. No—rather than drained, it had been torn out. It wasn’t mana he had spent by his own will.
Ran had already collapsed.
“That should… do it, right?”
Taeyang looked up at Untara with hazy eyes. Normally, once blocked, it would just leave. Please, do what you always do. Just this once.
The white dragon’s massive eyes met Taeyang’s. Then it opened its jaws once more.
Whoosh.
Mana began gathering again.
“God… damn it……”
Damn this game.
Despair filled Taeyang’s eyes for the first time. As mana concentrated once more, the white dragon’s scales trembled with pleasure. Its upper body swelled again.
Fwoooosh!
Untara unleashed a second breath. Ran, the battalion commander, and the other Guardians could only stand and watch. They had already used everything they had on the first breath.
“Is this the end?”
Someone’s words pierced everyone’s ears in despair. At that moment, a man stepped out from the magic circle Taeyang had been maintaining.
“A splendid struggle, gentlemen.”
He wore the black uniform symbolizing the Guardians, with a single sword on his back.
“I’ll take it from here.”
His voice was rough and hoarse with age. It was the Legion Commander, Guhyul of the Dragon Slaying Sword.
Thud.
Taeyang’s consciousness cut off.
* * *
A sealed room surrounded by steel walls on all sides. Pale fluorescent lights flickered intermittently. Inside, the white tiger beastman Paca was bound by thick, spell-etched chains.
Huff.
White mist puffed from his nose with each intermittent breath.
Thud.
With a sound, a man approached the solitary cell. Paca growled in a low voice.
“Who are you?”
“Would explaining help?”
The man wore a purple uniform casually unbuttoned. It was Salomon Acraptor.
“Whew. It’s freezing in here. You okay?”
“What’s your purpose?”
Paca glared as if ready to kill him at any moment. Salomon, unfazed, lit a cigarette on the other side of the bars.
“I heard you tore open a window from outside the train and came in?”
“……”
Paca didn’t answer. Salomon continued without concern.
“First sighting was in the worker residential area, Sector B. You tore off a window and went outside. Then six hours later, you infiltrated the Guardian quarters.”
Hiss.
Salomon lit the cigarette with a match.
“That’s my purpose. How did you survive in the extreme cold? For six hours.”
More precisely, it was the reason the regiment commander had captured rather than killed the white tiger beastman Paca. The moment he discovered Paca, the regiment commander had found hope—the hope that humans could survive without relying on the train. It was the wish of every human living on the train. The regiment commander had asked Salomon Acraptor, the smartest human he knew, to study Paca.
Paca snorted.
“I was born strong. What other method could there be?”
“I wonder.”
Salomon exhaled smoke. Surviving outside the train. The pills had been the first attempt to achieve that goal. Their development was revolutionary, but ultimately a failure. Engineers had to refine the mana by hand, it consumed considerable resources, and the duration was too short.
“Did you really endure with just your body, nothing else?”
“If you won’t believe me, why ask? As you can see, I was born with tiger hide instead of human skin. That’s why I withstand the cold better.”
This time, Salomon snorted. The extreme cold outside the train froze every animal in the world to death. Tigers, mammoths—even cockroaches were no exception.
“Fine. There’s no point in asking more. I’ll be direct. I want to study your body.”
“You already took samples.”
“I want to observe what kind of mana flows through your body, how it interacts with your physique, and how different your body is from a normal human’s. Those kinds of things.”
Mana followed will. Physical data could be observed externally, but the flow of mana couldn’t be observed without Paca’s willingness to show it.
Paca asked, “What do I get?”
Salomon smiled with the cigarette in his mouth.
“The engine room.”
Paca’s eyebrows twitched.
“You’re a ‘rat,’ aren’t you? Or do you call yourselves ‘players’?”
It was a fact known only to the highest ranks of the train. Once someone entered the engine room, they never came out. Guardians, engineers, wealthy citizens, and the occasional rats—all of them. Only the engineers were exceptions. Naturally, as Chief Information Officer, Salomon had investigated this secret. From his father, the train’s designer, to the rats who appeared whenever they had the chance and headed for the engine room. And he had reached the truth.
“According to you people, this world is part of a prison created by a Demon King?”
“You figured that much out.”
“I don’t want to believe it, but…”
In truth, Salomon didn’t particularly care. The existence of Salomon, breathing and living here, was clearly not by someone’s intention. Rather, he used this fact practically—often using it as a bargaining chip when strong players appeared.
This is just an extension of that.
Salomon exhaled smoke. The cell was now filled with hazy smoke.
“If you cooperate with the research, I’ll take you to the engine room. No harm done. You’d be the first among the players.”
He even tempted him with achievements. Paca laughed savagely.
“You seem to know a lot about players?”
“I’ve met more than one or two.”
“But you know nothing about beastmen.”
Crack.
The chains binding him began to tear.
“……You want to fight? That’s a bad choice.”
Salomon exhaled cigarette smoke. The smoke coiled around his body like a snake.
Clang. Clang.
The chains fell to the floor. Paca’s eyes flashed blue.
“Know this. Beastmen don’t sell their bodies. Not in any circumstance.”